Down By The Sea

I am at home for a few days right now.  I had planned on being home around Mother's day, but it is sometimes a little tricky coordinating everything just right with this job to be home exactly when you want to.  It is one of the things about being an Over The Road truck driver that causes many people to stumble at this career.  Not being able to be home when you want is one of the top reasons that people give for quitting this career and going back to some other type of work.  Generally, if you are a top performer and getting things done like you should, your driver manager will do what ever they can to make sure you are home when you need to be, as long as your requests are reasonable and communicated well in advance of the desired time.  Sometimes taking some time at home may have an ill effect on your income potential during the week prior to going home as they will start trying to keep you close in the area and may not have as much liberty in choosing loads for you due to the constraints of the logistical possibilities of making sure you make it home when desired.

I had communicated with my driver manager my desire of getting home during this time, as I had a few things to take care of at home while my youngest daughter was still there.  She will be leaving for the school she is attending in Colorado next week, and my wife is going to go with her and take a little vacation of sorts while staying there with her for a week or two.  There were some things that I needed to take care of for them with their automobiles, and preparations for the trip.  It is really fairly easy for me to get home to Texas because I am in Delhi, Louisiana on a weekly basis, but this time it got just a little tricky.  I had a back haul load from Cressona, Pennsylvania that put me down in Tampa, Florida - not exactly close to Delhi, Louisiana.  I had communicated with my dispatcher about finding me a load to Texas so that I could go home, usually an easy thing for us to do since we have loads going to Texas almost on a daily basis.  It is important for new drivers not to panic when it comes to getting their home-time.  Your dispatcher is working on it, but sometimes the flow of profitable freight sends you on a circuitous route to get where you are wanting to be.

One of the things that we are required to do on this job is to make sure we get our trucks into a terminal every 10,000 miles for the mechanics to take a good look at everything, and then on each fourth visit (40,000 mile interval) we have what is called our "B" service, which is a thorough servicing of the truck including oil and filter changes.  These visits are critical, in that if we miss them, or go past our mileage limits on these visits, it takes away our bonus pay, which is fairly substantial.  They use the financial incentive to keep the drivers on an effective schedule of their maintenance of the trucks.  It is a good program, and works well to keep our trucks in top condition. This time it fell at just the wrong time for me.  When I got finished at Tampa I had only about 500 miles left to get my "B" service performed, so I had to make a stop at the terminal in Gulfport, Mississippi on my way back to Delhi.  I  was not going to get there until late on Friday, which meant I would have to wait until Monday to get my service performed.  Ahhhgg!  Several wasted days and my truck will be in the shop all day Monday so that I can't get to Delhi until Tuesday.  What do you do?

Here's what I did...

Gulfport is right down on the coast, and just a short distance from a place that I have wanted to visit, Pass Christian, Mississippi.  I just drove my truck down to Pass Christian and parked at the beach, while spending the weekend right on the coast with the cool ocean breezes blowing through the open windows of my cab at night.  It was a really nice treat, but it felt kind of silly taking a break just before I was going to take my break at home, but I had no option.  I parked right by the Pass Christian Harbor  where a good many fishing vessels are docked right along side of the pleasure craft that are docked there at the Pass Christian Yacht Club.  There were some grand old Trawlers there and I enjoyed the sights of the boats as much as I enjoyed the sights, smells, and sounds of being on the coast.

Pass Christian is an old community that a little more than a decade ago boasted some very large stately mansions that were centuries old.  Unfortunately most of the town was swept away from the violence of Hurricane Katrina.  This once very popular tourist destination has struggled to rebuild itself, but is putting forth a valiant effort.

One thing that was not destroyed by that storm is the population of Hermit Crabs!  I lost count of how many Hermit Crabs I picked up and played with while on my little visit there recently.  I found them both in their usual Conch shaped shells and a few in some Nautilus shaped shells lumbering along in the sand and shallow water near the edge of the water as it lapped and ebbed back and forth on the shore.  Such a cumbersome little creature, but fun to watch nonetheless.  I captured three of them for a photo opportunity for my blog, but as soon as they realized I was going to post their images on the internet, they went remarkable reticent on me. So here's all I could get out of them...

One of the things I noticed while there was the constant sounds of the coastal aquatic birds in the area.  There were lots of Gulls, some beautiful little Least Terns, a good many Pelicans, and some Cranes.  Here's a shot of a fellow as he warily observes me working closer to him for a photo before he took flight...

The gulls had this unique habit of gathering together on a sand bar that was formed just a little short distance out in the water, and making such a racket with all their chirping and chattering among each other that it sounded as if they were holding some sort of council meeting and debating a great matter that was of most importance in their little Gull world.

I took my meals at a restaurant called Shaggy's.  It was a fun little place with some really good fresh seafood.  I am partial to the great flavor of our Gulf coast Shrimp and Oysters.  Having grown up in Texas we got our share of fresh Seafood, and it was good to be down here enjoying some of those flavors from the Gulf of Mexico again.  There were several nice restaurants in the area, but I kind of decided to stick with Shaggy's.  From what I could tell by my limited research the other restaurants were trying to cater a little more to the Yacht Club Crowd.  Let's just say they were attracting more of the "John Kerry" type crowd, whereas Shaggy's was more likely to attract the "Jimmy Buffet" crowd. That's the nicest way I can think to put it!

Of course I enjoyed the views from the beach and the gentle breezes blowing through the night.  It was a very pleasant break for me, but the timing of it kept me from having a very productive week.  But still it is hard to replace such a pleasant time of rest and the memories one gains from just such an unexpected break in the action.

Once I got released from the terminal and back on the road it turned out that they didn't have a load that I could run to Texas, so my dispatcher asked me what I thought about taking a load up to Lenexa, Kansas with a couple of stops in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Miami, Oklahoma.  He said I could do that load and then just head for home with my empty truck until I was ready to get back to work.  I jumped on that opportunity and worked the trip so that I could spend the night in Tulsa and see my good friends Jim and Virginia Rogers.  While there I took Jim out to a really great Barbecue Restaurant called "The Burn Company,"  People stand in line out the door of this place at the lunch hour, and if you are lucky enough to get near the front of the line you can get some of their really great Ribs before they sell out for the day.  Last time Jim and I tried this they were sold out by the time we got up to the counter.  This time we got there around 11:30 and were able to get Ribs.  About three or four people back behind us people started getting turned down and told, "We are sorry, but we are now sold out of Ribs."  It is a fun place where everyone sits at wooden picnic style tables, and it is so crowded that you almost always end up sitting with strangers who are crowded in at a table with you.

Of special interest to me, though not because of my interest in it as a drink, is a local libation available here that bears my name.  Yes, you can get yourself a canned craft beer here called Dale's Pale Ale for a five dollar bill...